I originally started keto on January 4, 2017. On February 13, 2018 I traveled to Singapore. Almost exactly a year before that I was on my way to Thailand – only 1.5 months into my keto journey and ready to give it all up for 2 weeks to experience this new country.
When I was in Thailand I never felt physically strange while eating carbs or drinking beer. I assumed my body hadn’t had enough time to recognize these things as weird after 6 weeks and moved on. When I went to Singapore on February 13, 2018 I fully expected my body to rebel. Previously when I had accidentally or even intentionally let a few carbs slip into my system (breadcrumbs, dark beer etc) I had felt instantly and physically sick. Since I usually didn’t know what these items contained (except the beer…) I dismissed the possibility that this was mental.
When I went to Singapore that changed. Basically either Asian carbs are different (which I have heard) or I am. I’ve heard anecdotes of several people going to Singapore, eating everything in sight (which mostly includes carbs, rice and sugar) and then noticed they lost weight despite it all. I unfortunately (but not unsurprisingly?) was not like that.
Shockingly I never felt sick while eating in Singapore. I fully expected I would, but I did not – even when drinking sugar filled local drinks. I never even felt a stomach twitch. It must be that Asian carb magic.
Something else that didn’t go as expected is that I thought I would LOVE carby foods and I…didn’t. Rice was meh. Even my beloved noodles were just ‘fine’ and I found myself wishing the sauce was over broccoli instead. Sugar didn’t spike my system. I guess either Asian food is magic or our body is crazy good at adapting. Maybe both.
I felt like I ate a lot more in Thailand than I did in Singapore and I definitely drank more, but it appears I gained the same amount of weight: 8 lbs. That is a more significant percentage of my weight now compared to a year ago, but hopefully 5 lbs of it will come off in a week as water weight like last year. We’ll see. Overall I’m just shocked that my body accepted Asian carbs and sugar as well as they did. To the next adventure!